What is Counselling?
Counselling, or talk therapy, is a way to help you with a wide variety of mental health and emotional challenges. Counselling can help eliminate or control troubling symptoms so you can function better, increase your feeling of well-being, and begin your recovery journey.
How Counselling Helps?
Counselling helps with issues such as coping with daily life; the impact of trauma, medical illness or loss, like the death of a loved one; and specific mental health issues, like depression, trauma, PTSD, obsessive thoughts, or anxiety.
The Counselling Session
Counselling sessions are typically held once a week for 50 minutes. Clients share personal feelings and thought in an open and supportive environment.
Counselling can be short-term (a few sessions), dealing with immediate issues, or long-term (months), dealing with long-standing and more complex issues.
Overview
I apply a variety of counselling and therapy approaches and adapt the strategy to fit the needs of each of my clients. Client-Centered Therapy, Narrative Therapy, Gestalt Therapy, and Cognitive-Behavioral Therapy are four approaches I've found highly effective, and I apply them while working with my clients.
Client-Centered Therapy
Client-Centred Therapy is a process of freeing a person and removing obstacles so that healthy growth and development can proceed, and the client can become independent and self-directed. The Client-Centred approach to therapy operates with the assumption that we are all positive, caring, and trustworthy. I apply the concept of unconditional positive regard, and I believe that all clients, no matter what the problem, can improve without being taught anything specific by the therapist, once they and respect themselves. All the resources all lie within the client.
Narrative Therapy
Narrative therapy is a form of counselling that focuses on the client’s life narratives. Stories can be a powerful negative or positive influence on the way people see themselves and their lives. I collaborate with clients to empower them to step away from problem-saturated or oppressive stories and begin to explore untold stories where their intentions, hopes, values, desires, and dreams have room to thrive.
Cognitive-Behavioral Therapy (CBT)
Cognitive-behavioral therapy (CBT) is a psycho-social intervention that aims to improve mental health. CBT focuses on challenging and changing unhelpful cognitive distortions and behaviors, improving emotional regulation, and the development of personal coping strategies that target solving current problems. CBT is a proven approach I apply to assist clients in recovering from trauma and post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD).
Gestalt Therapy
Gestalt therapy is an existential or experiential form of counselling or therapy that emphasizes personal responsibility and the experience in the present moment. The Gestalt approach explores the present moment for the client in the therapist-client relationship, their environment, and the social contexts in the client's life. Exploring the self-regulating adjustments clients make to adapt and respond to their life situation is a core element of Gestalt therapy.
Step 1
A brief phone conversation or video collaboration can help you decide if counselling suits your needs. There is no charge for this introductory conversation. If you decide you’d like to begin counselling, we’ll work together and move to steps 2 and 3.
Step 2
The Discovery Session is an in-depth exploration that takes place in person, by phone, or through video collaboration. In this 60-minute session, I will learn more about various aspects of your life, and we will explore what you would like to achieve in counselling or coaching.
Step 3
Counselling generally involves several sessions, as required (60-minutes). The goals and timeframe are discussed at the beginning of the process and are revisited as needed.
It takes time to gain a sense of how counselling may benefit you. Committing to the process will confirm to yourself that you are prepared to stay with your plan or work through your recovery process.
